


Uninvited

by CallingAllCarstairs



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: (for Cap's sake), Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Canon-Typical Violence, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Explicit Language, Gen, Helpful Dick Grayson, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Tim Drake, Jason Todd Has Issues, Kidnapped Tim Drake, One Shot, Resurrected Jason Todd, Stabbing, Tim Drake is Robin, Unhelpful Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:55:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25719922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallingAllCarstairs/pseuds/CallingAllCarstairs
Summary: Tim was in trouble. Of the dire variety. Knowing Jason, even as little as he actually did, probably of the fatal variety.Bruce had warned him not to go out on his own until they could locate Jason, but Tim had insisted. And now here he was, waking up robbed of his gear, unable to call for backup (more like just help at this point), and strung up from his wrists to a rafter tie in the middle of a dimly-lit room with a throbbing lump on his forehead. His legs were tied together, and it was getting harder to breathe. ‘Way to demonstrate your independence, Boy Wonder,’ he thought glumly.---------------------------------------------------Jason's back, he's angry, and it's all Tim's fault.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	Uninvited

Tim was in trouble. Of the dire variety. Knowing Jason, even as little as he actually did, probably of the fatal variety.

Bruce had warned him not to go out on his own until they could locate Jason, but Tim had insisted. And now here he was, waking up robbed of his gear, unable to call for backup (more like just help at this point), and strung up from his wrists to a rafter tie in the middle of a dimly-lit room with a throbbing lump on his forehead. His legs were tied together, and it was getting harder to breathe. ‘Way to demonstrate your independence, Boy Wonder,’ he thought glumly.

There was an open window in the corner behind him. Maybe if he could just get his thumb free or break the beam down-

The door opened violently, and Jason entered. Upon seeing Tim awake, he walked up, looked his successor over, and then punched him, hard. Two to the face and three to the gut before Tim could even ask what he wanted.

‘There we go,’ Jason said with a menacing grin. ‘Now you’re camera-ready. Don’t forget to smile! We’re live in the Bat Cave in sixty seconds!’

With the wind knocked decidedly out of him, Tim couldn’t even kick back. He knew exactly how to do it, too. Dick had made him practice it a hundred times. ‘Just like on the trapeze’ he said. ‘Easy as breathing’ he said. Well, breathing wasn’t so easy at the moment. Jason was too far away now anyway, tinkering with something in the darkness.

Jason flicked on the lights suddenly and stood back with a flourishing gesture toward Tim, who winced at the sudden brightness, trying to get his bearings. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Tim could make out a webcam pointed in his direction and heard Jason start to…narrate? But not to him. This was a message for Bruce. Tim was just here to make the point starkly and painfully clear.

Tim started trying to dislocate his thumb immediately.

Jason seemed to be finished with his ‘introduction’, however, and turned to face the new Robin. As he drew his knife and came closer, Tim looked in his eyes and knew there was no reasoning with him. He tried the kick instead, but Jason was ready for it and lashed out with the blade. Tim cried out in pain and focused on breathing.

‘You see that, Bruce?’ said Jason, turning to face the camera. He squeezed Tim’s shin at the point of impact. Tim cried out again. ‘All that blood just from a little nick on the peroneal artery. You taught me that. You taught me just where to hit to cause the most damage.’

He turned to Tim, right in his face.

‘What do you say, Timmy? Want to try for the femoral?’

Tim jerked forward and head-butted Jason as hard as he could manage, but all it did was earn him another left cross to the face. Jason grabbed a chunk of Tim’s hair, pulling his head back. He turned to the camera again, shouting now.

‘THIS is what you turn us into, Bruce! Animals! Lashing out at everything we see because all we know we learned from you! Violence!’ Tim got another punch to the gut. ‘Brutality!’ A slow cut across the forehead. ‘Pain and fucking misery! From YOU!’

With a cry of rage, Jason plunged his knife into Tim’s upper chest. Tim took a few laboured breaths and stopped struggling altogether. Jason turned to face the camera again.

‘This is YOUR work, Bruce,’ he said, breathing heavily. ‘The pain and confusion on that poor kid’s face was YOUR fault. I should have been the last, but you just couldn’t resist recruiting another sorry soldier to your damn hopeless cause.’

Behind Jason, Tim looked up slowly.

‘And that’s all we are to you, aren’t we? Cannon fodder! Me, this pretender, even your precious Dickie bird, all just corpses in your USELESS, FUTILE WAR!’

Silent as the grave, Tim looked up and gripped the rope above his hands tightly. Jason’s focus was entirely on the camera now.

‘And I want you to know, I’ll do this and worse to the next one and the one after that and the one after that, until you get it through your head that this needs to STOP.’

Cringing tremendously, Tim pulled himself up on the rope until the knife, still buried to the hilt in his shoulder, was within reach. With a prolonged silent scream, Tim slid the blade out and relaxed his arms back down, willingly himself with every fibre of his being not to pass out. Not yet.

‘I should have been it, Bruce! This should have ENDED with ME! But I guess I’m the lesson you failed to learn.’

If you could say one thing about Jason, it’s that he always kept a sharp blade. With a flick of the knife, Tim snapped the rope easily. As he dropped noisily to the floor, Jason whipped around, rage and tears all over his face. He lunged at Tim with a primal scream. Tim slashed out with his awkward grip on the knife, catching Jason on the arm. Jason shouted and was distracted just long enough for Tim to manage a chaotic pin to the floor and a lucky nerve pinch that knocked Jason out immediately.

Tim fell back, panting and wondering how the hell he was going to get out of here. His adrenaline was wearing off, and his wounds were making themselves known.

There was a long beep and a crackle of static from the computer.

‘--bin? Can you ----r me? Robin, respond.’

Tim blinked, not sure if he’d imagined it. ‘…Batman?’

‘Do you know your location?’

Tim fought through the haze of his brain, remembering the chatter he’d heard outside the window when he had first awoken. ‘Chinatown…I think.’

‘Can you be any more specific?’

‘… …Batman?’

‘It’s all right, son. We’re coming for you.’

Then the world went black.

Dick was shouting at Babs. Dick NEVER shouted at Babs.

‘Where IS he, Barbara?!’

Bruce noted the use of her given name and knew it was a sign of just how frustratingly helpless Dick was feeling. He could commiserate.

‘I’m working on it, Dick,’ Babs said calmly over the comm, her voice steady and her fingers never ceasing their steady beat on the keyboard. ‘I’m going as fast as I can.’

‘You forced the camera to work two ways, but you can’t track the damn IP address?!’ Dick pounded his fists on the console of his bike, desperate for a direction.

‘Got it. He’s on the corner of Pell and Baxter. Go.’

Dick was off. Bruce was already elsewhere downtown in the car, also waiting.

They pulled up at the same time, wordlessly falling in beside one another and back into old habits.

Babs’s voice came in their ears again. ‘Top floor somewhere, and the lights are still on. Shouldn’t be hard to narrow it down at this time of night.’

Only one building fit the bill, and Bruce had already been leading them upstairs in it. ‘We’ll handle it from here, Barbara,’ said Bruce. ‘Tell Alfred to be ready with the med kit.’

Babs disconnected without another word.

When they reached the room, Bruce froze for a moment, staring at Jason’s unconscious form. This was still so new and totally unexpected, and Bruce didn’t know how to handle any of it. That thought unsettled Dick, but he gently pushed Bruce toward Tim and took care of restraining the maniac himself. By the time Jason was relatively safely squared away, Bruce was already heading back down the stairs, carrying Tim in his arms and moving quickly. Dick bolted after them.

‘Is he-?’

‘He’s going to be all right.’

‘Jeez, Bruce, he lost a ton of blood, is he still br-’

‘He’s going to be all right.’

Without another word, the three of them loaded into the Batmobile, Dick touching up what Bruce had started on Tim’s injuries and trying to remain calm. He reminded himself that Tim had probably had worse. He reminded himself that he was going to get the best medical care in the city. He reminded himself to thoroughly lay the hurt on Jason for this.

Tim came to in the car just enough to mutter a soft ‘…Dick?’

Dick let out a nervous burst of air as he smiled. He choked down a lump in his throat. ‘It’s all right, little bird. We’ve got you.’

‘…knew you…would.’

Dick smiled again, relieved, as his brother fell back into a deep sleep.

‘Always.’

**Author's Note:**

> This scene goes through my head every time I hear the Alanis Morissette song 'Uninvited' - listen along, if you're feeling it!


End file.
